Saturday Links

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This time, it's the Vatican. Wikileaks has released documents related to the Irish priest scandals. Pope Benedict refused to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into alleged child sex abuse by priests, according to U.S. diplomatic cables released by…
I'm behind the curve a bit here, but I've seen and heard a bunch of people making really sleazy arguments about the current financial stimulus package working its way through congress, and those arguments are a perfect example of one of the classic ways of abusing statistics. I keep mentioning…
TEH STUPID. From Bob Somerby: The second trait is the corps' sheer stupidity--an artifact of palace culture. Did she cry on purpose? they're asking today. Well, no, she didn't, we confidently state. If you think she did, you may not understand why acting schools exist. Or why they can be…
I will not be actively supporting Obama's reelection next year. I will not donate money to his campaign. I will not even put a sign on my lawn. In the end I will vote for him, but only because to do otherwise would be to reward the Republicans for their appalling and unpatriotic behavior over…

Oh ... hell. I shall never see the end of my reading list. Your killing me with kindness dude. They are exceedingly nice links .. miles to go before I sleep.

In SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL link:

"Welsh: I couldn't help but chuckle when {X}, a 27-year-old history teacher who didn't exactly kill himself studying when he was in my English class 10 years ago, suggested, to thunderous applause, that we could help change the atmosphere by making students wear uniforms."

Somerby criticizes the teachers for sloth, but to me this sentence bespeaks incompetence. First, it sounds like the history teacher got Bs and Cs in High School English. More important is that he thinks that requiring students to wear uniforms does much to address the significant educational problems at the school. And more important is the fact that he got thunderous applause for the suggestion. Whatever the merits of his suggestion, thunderous applause indicates that the rest of the faculty just do not get it.

When Somerby was in high school in the 1960s, the teaching field attracted some bright women. But as opportunities increased for women in the general economy, teachers' salaries did not increase to attract teachers with the same level of competence. You get what you pay for.